1.) Don’t be tempted to think only square.
Yes, 90 degree angles are great, and sometimes appropriate, but you don’t need to fill your booth with them. Fabric can easily be rounded to create a vast array of shapes. Transporting show attendees to another world is a great way of getting out of the office environment. You don’t need to recreate the boxes that we work in everyday. Unique shapes and rounded corners opens minds which can be a great way to interact with customers and prospects.

2.) Let It Soar
Tension fabric systems can soar above your booth, attracting attention from far away and creating a cool atmosphere inside. While you may be restricted from hanging signage from the show ceiling, you usually can build fairly high. While double-decker booths used to be the epitome of expense, tension fabric systems can give you the illusion of grandeur without the same expense.

3.) Light It
Lighting is often ignored but can be a dramatic element to add to a booth. Lighting can transform your booth continuously throughout the show. Furthermore, you can change lighting easily for different shows. With tension fabric, back lighting can create dramatic elements like glowing walls, free shapes, columns and cubes. Back projections can animate logos and show product images. Again, these are dramatic elements that are very economic and easy to change.

4.) Totally Rely on It
Many companies use tension fabric for one or two elements of their booth. Don’t’ be afraid to totally rely on it for your entire boot design. Decorative elements along with more structural elements like walls and ceilings can be created from tension fabric. Designing your entire booth from tension fabric opens a world of possibilities to you now and in the future.

5.) Fabric is green!
The very nature of fabric is environmentally friendly. It requires no trees to be harvested. Fabric is light-weight so that means less fuel is required for transport and in many applications recyclable, light-weight aluminum tubing is used for the structural support. Printed fabrics today are also available that contain only solvent free inks and dyes! So fabric is very green!

More pics:

From the book:

Trade show exhibit design is undergoing a revolution bringing new materials and design techniques that are lighter, easier to ship, easier to assemble and are reusable. Moreover, environmental consciousness has become a positive and marketable attribute that touts the cutting edge efficiency of many companies.

In other words, going green at your next trade show may be healthy for the planet, but it may also be healthy for your company’s bottom line.

When it comes to technology, yesterday’s new toy is tomorrow’s indispensable business tool.  We’ve seen this happen with everything from desktop computers to cell phones to GPS systems.  Keeping this in mind when approaching technology for tradeshows is a good idea.  A fancy booth toy could just be a waste of money, but the right investment in technology could help attract attention, achieve business goals at a show, or help create an unforgettable branded environment.

Looking at some overall trends in event marketing can reveal where new technologies can be most effective.  We examined some of the prevailing trends in event marketing and compared them to new evolutions in technology to help you choose which might help build business at your company’s next tradeshow or event.

We noticed that a big destination for visitors to the site has been our Design Trends category.  Here are some of our most popular articles in that category for your reading pleasure:

5 Ways to Take Advantage of Tension Fabric
3D Brochure
Rogers Posts Free E-Book on Green Tradeshow Design
Free E-Book on Tradeshow Design from Rogers
Less is More in Norway

Listen to a podcast with Jeffrey Blackwell, president of The Rogers Company on Tradeshowfeed.com here: (Link)

Here the press release from our launch:

THE ROGERS COMPANY LAUNCHES TRADESHOWFEED.COM
Resource Links Companies to Trends, Technologies & Strategies for Successful Events

Mentor, OH (March 26, 2008) – The Rogers Company announces a new resource for marketing professionals and business leaders looking to build business at trade events. Tradeshowfeed.com features regularly updated articles, links, interviews, and thought leadership pieces on trends, technologies and strategies that can be used to enhance presence at events and ultimately build business.

“Tradeshows are often one of the largest items in a marketing or sales budget,” says Jeffrey Blackwell, president of The Rogers Company. “Tradeshowfeed.com gives marketing professionals and business leaders the tools they need to apply today’s trends and technologies to their sales, marketing, branding, and design strategies at tradeshows and other events. It is our goal to help these professionals more fully realize a return on their significant event investments.”

Tradeshowfeed.com features articles, videos, and audio interviews presented in four categories: Money Matters, Marketing Strategies, State of the Art Technology, and Design Trends. This web resource will pull from information resources online, as well as from The Rogers Company’s own design and marketing experts and from other industry experts. The site will also feature links to important trade media websites and other resources for event strategy.

Visitors to the site are invited to receive updates via email as regularly published articles and other features become available. This site also enables readers’ comments on every article creating an online dialog and valuable resource.

“Tradeshowfeed expands the dialogue about events to marketing and business leaders,” says Blackwell. “Ultimately, booth design, marketing & sales strategy, technology, and smart budgeting need to come together to grow business. Tradeshowfeed provides a platform for these elements to merge and provides concise information for busy people to make wise event decisions.”

About Rogers
For over 65 years The Rogers Company has been an award winning designer and manufacturer of branded environments for tradeshow exhibits, corporate events, lobbies, showrooms and retail environments – essentially any place where communicating a brand is vital. In addition to its 3D marketing services The Rogers Company is also a full service trade show and event implementation partner providing turnkey services and support for its corporate clients throughout the country.

With its complete design staff, skilled craftsmen and construction facilities, Rogers can custom build a wide range of branded environments to suit any need. Through its strategic partner network the company also provides a wide range of portable and modular display solutions, support and logistics for international tradeshows and an extensive rental inventory of both custom and portable display products

Additionally through its strategic partner network, Rogers provides Eventelligence™, a technology infrastructure service for event registration, event mapping and way-finding systems, lead retrieval, lead tracking, fulfillment services and various RFID solutions for focused tradeshows and events.

For more information on The Rogers Company please visit www.therogersco.com.